Re: SUO: Re: SUO -- Technical Methodology
Pat,
The emphasis in standards development is on consensus.
I highly recommend the notes by Matthew West, who has
made some excellent comments about how standards groups
operate. Following is my response to your question:
PC> Don't most (all?) standards bodies take votes at
> intermediate stages to finalize some decisions and get
> on with other issues?
Yes, but most of the simple votes are on procedural
issues, such as when and where to schedule the next
meeting, who will be the committee chairperson, etc.
The votes on substantive issues are usually determined
by a consensus -- i.e. by unanimity whenever possible
or by an overwhelming majority with very little serious
opposition by the rest (who frequently abstain when
they are not strongly opposed to the issue).
Even in cases where the great majority of the committee
is for some proposal, a vociferous minority is usually
sufficient to delay the proposal until a compromise can
be reached.
Then, when the committee has approved a draft standard,
it must be sent out for public review. And anyone in the
world can raise objections. A single technical objection
that the proposers cannot explain away requires them to
go back to the drawing board to revise their draft -- and
submit to another vote for approval by the full committee
followed by another public review.
To answer your original question, yes, a committee can
make a decision based on a simple majority. But if they
did so on any of the substantive issues that have been
hotly debated on SUO list, their chance of getting
a standard that the world would accept would be ZERO.
John